I always park vehicles by doing the following:
- hold down the brake pedal
- shift to Neutral
- set the parking brake
- release the brake pedal to let vehicle roll a bit
- shift to Park.
- turn off engine
I thought this would prevent the automatic transmission's parking pawl from becoming wedged, but after driving my father's 2002 Nissan Frontier 2WD w/automatic recently, I think I may be wrong,
I had no problems the first time I started his truck, but on the second start and afterwards, the shifter would stay stuck in Park unless I moved the truck back and forth slightly. This happened every time until I decided to adopt my father's method of parking:
- hold down brake pedal
- shift to Park
- turn off engine
- release brake pedal (truck usually roll some)
I never had any more problems with the shifter being stuck, but why? Also this never happened with my 1998 Frontier 2WD automatic.
I don't think the neutral safety switch or any brake-transmission interlock is to blame, but I'm no expert. The parking brake on the
2002 Frontier held fine, both forward and backward.